Lucy, I'm home!

(Day 5, Grenoble)

Okay, so there is no one I know named Lucy here, but that's beside the point. I'm officially in Grenoble and it's fabulous, but Day 4 first, I guess.

Day 4, Paris. Despite the crazy fog, we climbed the Tour Eiffel all the way to the top. All 660+ stairs. Me. Kaitlin Fitzgerald, who climbed 420+ stairs the day before, climbed another 660+ the next day. If I didn't know myself any better, I would say I had exercised... but that can't be. There are pictures of the top of the Tour Eiffel on my Facebook, but that seems a little foolish as you couldn't see anything anyway. It was wicked cool and we took the elevator back down (that's more like it). Then a few of us (Me, Aubrey, MC, Ariel, Cate, and Meddie) went to go see the Catacombs, but they were closed! The very nice people there told us it would be reopened on the weekend, but we are in Grenoble this weekend so no catacombs for us. Instead we went to Ils de Saint-Louis and ate at this fabulous restaurant that we had heard about from Marie. She said it had the best glace (ice cream) in all of Paris, so we got that first. Then an hour later we decided we were actually hungry so we got lunch there too! Before we met back up with everyone at our hotel, we stopped in a little papeterie which is my new thing. 'Murica, you better work on your papeteries because they are now a necessary feature of my life. Keeping in mind that my favorite store was Staples, a papeteries is a little boutique that has pens, paper, folders, cards, wrapping paper, post cards, anything stationary or paper related is found there. I obvi had to make a purchase, and I got 5 (color-coded) folders for school that will be returning with me aux États-Unis.

We made it back to the hotel in one piece and then discovered there was a taxi strike. ... There are 12 of us with 2 big bags (or a hundred if you're me) and we had to get to the train station on the other side of Paris. So, of course, we took the bus, and all the Parisians loved us. haha Maybe not, but whatever. We rode first-class to Grenoble and it only took 3 hours on the wicked fast train. Richard, mon père d'accueil, picked me up à la gare, and we walked (Je suis désolé, Richard!) to their apartment which is in the city center. It is fabulous. It's on 3eme étage, or the 4th floor for the rest of us. It's very modern until you get to the furniture in the living room and the dining room which look like something that could easily be placed in the Governor's Palace in CW or in a less gold version of Versailles.

In the house is Martine, my host mom, Richard, my host father, and Clémentine, my host sister. Richard works in the local bureaucracy, as far as API has told me (I'm working up to the asking of questions, c'est un peu difficile), and Martine doesn't work anymore. Clémentine is 22 and goes to one of the 3 universities in Grenoble studying law. They all know very basic English, I think, but we only speak in French. That's absolutely fabulous for the whole "let's be fluent" thing I've wanted, but it's a little difficult on the "let's converse" front. On the first night, (Martine made pasta bolognese) we talked about movies, my travels to France/Grenoble, Gerard Depardieu, and I could participate and recount the conversation to y'all! I KNOW FRENCH, EVERYONE. ALERT THE PRESSES! Oh my Lord, that has been the best part of my trip. I can talk with them and we all know what's going on (mostly). I'm able to understand them pretty well and the speaking part is more difficult, but possible.  I'm awesome, let's just soak that in for a little bit.
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Okay, thanks. So

Day 5, Grenoble. So today was pretty easy. We met at the Office of Tourism in Grenoble, which is 2 blocks from the apartment and then Marie and Anna of API took us on a tour of Grenoble. Apparently Grenoble is known for their walnuts and Chartreuse, a very strong après-dîner alcohol that is apparently good with hot chocolate making it a Verte Chaud (obviously Grenoble knew I was coming). Then we broke for lunch (I got a kebab), and we took the tram to the campus. I'm going to CUEF, within the Université Stendhal (Centre Universitaire d'Études Françaises). Monday I have to take a placement test to find out what level of French I am, from B1.0-B1.7 to B2.0-B2.4 and then either Tuesday or Wednesday (I've been getting mixed messages) classes will start. I'm sort of nervous to figure out where I'm going with all of that, but I've officially taken up a "Que sera, sera" attitude about this whole thing. I'm going to learn French, it's going to be great, it doesn't matter what classes I take, what mistakes I make, it's all great anyway (and a little bit chilly, the Europeans don't believe in heating) and I'm already in love with this city. I'll write more this weekend, but, for now, I'm alive and it's great and I just want to smile all the time.